"No Vaseline" is a diss track by Ice Cube from his second album, Death Certificate. The song was produced by Ice Cube and Sir Jinx. The UK release of Death Certificate omitted this song, along with the 46-second long "Black Korea". The song contains vicious lyrics and remarks towards Ice Cube's former group, N.W.A, which Ice Cube left in December 1989 due to royalty issues. The antagonists are his former bandmates, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella and their manager, Jerry Heller, whom Ice Cube blames for causing the rift in the group.
Information
Ice Cube recorded this song in response to the comments N.W.A made towards him in their albums 100 Miles and Runnin' and Niggaz4Life. He had made some brief disses to N.W.A. in the Kill at Will EP, mocking the phrase "hundred miles and running" on "Jackin' for Beats" and ending "I Gotta Say What Up!!!" with an answer-phone message asking what had happened to the other members of the group, which leads to Ice Cube hanging up on the caller. The first minute of the song is a reference to N.W.A's "Message to B.A.", in which they call Ice Cube "Benedict Arnold" as well as an "Ice-T wannabe". Ice Cube then begins his full-blown diss on the group and their manager. Ice Cube addresses Eazy-E and Heller with particularly harsh words, criticizing Eazy's decision to align himself with Heller and accusing both Eazy-E and Heller of unfairly exploiting the rest of the group. Ice Cube also refers to his decision to leave Ruthless Records in the lyric: "You lookin' like straight bozos, I saw it comin', that's why I went solo... You got jealous when I got my own company. But I'm a man, and ain't nobody humpin' me." Cube also references Eazy's appearance at the lunch benefiting the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle, hosted by then-President George H. W. Bush, repeatedly saying, "I never have dinner with the President." The song appears on the Death Row Greatest Hits compilation album. Although the song was not released on Death Row Records, it is believed that Suge Knight included it as an act of animosity towards Dr. Dre as the song includes numerous disses towards him. The word "Jew" is censored on the album although it is not on Death Certificate. "We're not asking Ice Cube to mask the reality of the streets," observed Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Los Angeles Jewish human rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "By all means flag the social problems, but don't exploit them by turning a professional spat between a former manager and an artist into a racial dispute." "It's wrong for the rabbi to call me anti-Semitic," Cube responded. "I respect Jewish people because they're unified. I wish black people were as unified." "No Vaseline" was track number 20 in the track listing of Death Certificate and was the B-side for the album single, "Steady Mobbin'".
Aftermath
N.W.A never responded to the song as a group. Not long after the release, Dr. Dre left the group, citing lack of monetary compensation. This led to N.W.A's dissolution as its members went on to start their solo careers. Dr. Dre and his protégé Snoop Dogg later dissed Eazy-E in the song "Fuck wit Dre Day " and Heller in the video, prompting Eazy-E to respond with "Real Muthaphuckkin G's". Dr. Dre also took shots at Ice Cube in "Fuck with Dre Day" with lyrics: Dr. Dre also took another shot at Ice Cube on his single "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" with the lyrics "Mobbin like a muthafucker but I aint Lynchin". Ice Cube at the time had his group Da Lench Mob. When Eazy-E was close to death in 1995 from AIDS, according to an interview with Ice Cube, Cube and Dre visited Eazy in the hospital. Cube stated that when he went to visit Eazy, Dre came out and claimed that Eazy was unconscious. Cube left the hospital without seeing Eazy and told Dre to call him when he wakes up. Dre called Cube and told him that Eazy had died.
The song features prominently in the 2015 N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, which shows Ice Cube recording the song in response to N.W.A's disses. Heller plays the song for the group, whose members take offense to the various disses. In the dramatization, Heller does not seem unduly bothered until the references to Heller as a "Jew", and his reactions to the insults lobbed at the group and Heller help lead into Dr. Dre's split from N.W.A.
